


A Father's Pride

by Deannie



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Character Study, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-04-20
Updated: 2006-04-20
Packaged: 2017-12-12 09:44:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 474
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/810158
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Deannie/pseuds/Deannie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This is now, of course, an AU, but was a fun speculation on what John actually is. Just his thoughts as he waited for the boys to come back to their hotel room in "Shadow."</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Father's Pride

**Author's Note:**

> Written in April 2006

A single shadow in a world of shadows. The night is dark and safe, and he stands by the window, remembering...

He remembers what seems an eon ago: the first time he killed one of his own kind. Remembers the way his skin cringed away from the silver of the knife; the way he nearly couldn't do it. But ending one life meant saving many, and he did it, following through with the death stroke, feeling blood run heavy and thick and sickly sweet over his hand.

He remembers the first time he watched Dean kill. It hadn't been a demon or a human, just a filthy vampire, but he remembers the sting of pride in his gut as the body turned to ash. Remembers that Dean had turned to him, cold and triumphant, all of ten, and had felt redemption in a father's acceptance.

He remembers that young Sammy never really learned how to kill. Sweet, tender, his mother's son, Sam had managed sixteen years before a selkie threatened Dean's life, and Sam was obliged to shoot round after round of incendiary bullets into that dangerously beautiful body to protect his own. The pride had been tempered by sadness then. He knew this wasn't Sam's chosen destiny, but it was one that had been written for the boy in a spray of blood and flames on a ceiling long, long ago.

He has watched them. Always. Watched Dean retrieve his brother from a life of seeming normalcy; watched Sam lose the thing that made him real in a spray of blood some twenty years in his past. He has felt his satisfaction grow as two fragile human children have grown into warriors that threaten all of the evil things that lurk beyond the normal.

He waits for them now, waits for them to return because he knows they will. Looks down into the street below and sees two battered warriors heading toward their destiny. And he smiles. He has taught them everything they need to know to carry this all to fruition, and they are almost ready.

Enemies were made to be vanquished, and the angel that became John Winchester twenty-three years ago feels a deep peace settle in his gut as he hears the sounds of footfalls and quiet voices on the stairs. Two children grown to more-and-less-than-human status through their pain.

It is time, and the battle for balance that has waited a thousand years and more begins a slow roll toward the boiling point as the door behind him opens.

"HEY!"

At Dean's voice, the angel turns, a soft grin gracing its human face at the sight of the weapons it has taken so many years to cultivate. They are deadly, and strangely, very beautiful.

His voice holds the pride and joy of a true father. "Hi, boys."

* * * * *  
The End


End file.
